Los Angeles daily herald., 1887-10-21
rhe harlan mur der.

found both in the civil and criminal
ana of this era.
The last OF such cases to attract at
tention is the Harlan murder case
now in its inception, and soon to con
before the courts. G. N. Harlan was
dentist doing business in this city. He
VAS also known among the sporting
fraternity as one of the most
INSCRIPTIONS, cold-blooded card
sharps about town. Nor did
he, as reputed, retain the honor
which leads a man to play fair
game. He is credited with being ca
pable of inexorably fleeing any
opponent out of his money, by any ur-
fair means known to the most skillful
gamesters.
Some time ago barn was burned
one night, west of Compton, and about
ten miles from this city. AS the
premises were unoccupied, the neigh
bors we're at a loss to account for the
fire. Next morning a large grease
stain where the fire had been led to
investigation and human remains
were found in and about the spot.
simultaneously Doctor, or DOC,
Harlan was missing from home, but
this did not cause much comment, as
he was in the habit OF going away and
being gone from home for considera-
BILE periods at at ime. But investigation
disclosed the fact that some
bits of clothing found in the ashes,
and the teeth OF the victim who per-
ished in the flames were those Of the
missing dentist.
At this point the officials took up the
matter, and at once Miss Hattie Wool
steen and her younger sister were put
under arrest. The sister was almost
at once released. The reason of the
arrest was that Harlan was known to
have been very intimate with the girl,
and later it was disclosed that on the
night of the burning of the barn she
had been known to leave this city in
buggy, and to return with the
rig to the stable where it was owned,
at very late hour of the night, or
rather eaily in the morning. and then
t. 90 home. After her arrest she trie
to commit suicide by taking dose OF
poison, but she was frustrated in this
design, and then one of the police
officers by some ruse obtained cir
cumstantial confession from her OF the
murder of Harlan. Her story is in
many of its elements extremely inn
probable, as it has come to the ears
of the public-the police office is ex-
ceedingly reticent as to what
is known. 1t runs substantially
thus: She went out in the buggy
with the doctor as she had often done
before. They went down Figueroa
street, and when out towards the
south limits of the city, she shot him,
the bullet entering his head and pro-
ducing instant death. With the dead
body by her side she drove some five
or six miles to the barn, lifted the
body out, dragged it into the house,
which she fired and then drove away,
washed the blood off the vehicle, and
then went back to the stable. There
are ele ments of improbability in this
story which are obvious, not to speak
Of the extreme doubt that young
girl would have the nerve
to bear up throughout SO terrible an
act of cruelty and crime.
Yet she may have murdered Har-
Ian. She claims that he had courted
her under the guise of being an un-
married man; they had become en-
gagged and she expected him to marry
her. She had discovered that he had
a wife, and under these circumstances
girls who were not previously Grim
inals have killed men they loved and
who had betrayed or deceived them
She may have lured him to the barn,
and when inside, may have shot him
and then fired the building. Just be-
fore the fire broke out reputable people
in the vicinity say they heard shots
about the barn. Her absence from
home that night, her return at such
An unreasonable hour, her attempted
suicide and her confession-which she
probab bly, made in spite OF her subse-
quent denial-will be hard to explain
on any other ground than that OF her
guilt.
The relations OF the girl with Har-
Ian are notorious. She came from
the East, and, with her sister, served
in several families in and
about the city as domestics.
How she became acquainted with
Harlan is not yet clear.
In connection with the murder all
sorts OF wild stories, and wilder theo-
ries have been set afloat. Perhaps the
most sensational OF all these appeared
in our local columns yesterday-given
to the public with plain warning that
it was given as a rumor, and with a
plain intimation that it was probably
without foundation in fact. So far
there is no reason to think that there
is or ever has been such man az
Oliver, who is there represented as be-
ing the man murdered by Harlan.
Nor is there any good reason to sup
pose that Harlan is alive, or that it